Monster
by MaskedAngel18
Summary: To her, it is a parasite. It slowly eats away at her, turning her into a monster. Is there any help for her at all or is she doomed to an end that will kill everyone she came to trust and love as well as kill her soul? Eventual RenoXOC
1. Prologue

**Hello! I know, I know. I keep coming up with new stories before I'm even finished with one. I don't know why. I'm convinced I either have or am developing ADD with the way my focus keeps shifting. That and I'm always getting up and pacing my room every five to ten minutes when I sit down to watch TV or listen to music.**

**But don't worry! I have a couple of places in some of my other stories I want to reach first before I really get into making this story. So I WILL update those in the meantime (after all, some parts of this story are still a bit rough when I'm thinking them out).**

**Besides, this is the first time I have a story with a prologue, and I want to know what you guys think of it and if you want more of this story. I know that prologues don't offer much, but I would like to know if you guys are with me on this. I swear I DO have a plan on how to get here where the prologue starts. And I think it's good, but I would like to know if I have some support for starting this story.**

**I know there are a lot of FF7 fans out there, and I want to know if you guys want me to go through with this story.**

**In other words, reviews telling me your thoughts are needed. I know that this is just the prologue, but still, support for this story will give me motivation to update as soon as possible. So please leave a review. It doesn't have to be a novel or anything. Just something to let me know you guys want this story.**

**Well, here is the prologue.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own FF7, especially characters, places, etc. I do own my OC, whose name will be revealed later in the story (I have a habit of doing this, don't I?).**

Prologue

Okay, she was pretty sure that she was alone now. Finally, she could take a break. A very _short_ break, but it was still a break.

Of course, being slumped against a building holding onto her bleeding side and listening for every little sound and watching for even the _tiniest_ bit of movement wasn't exactly her idea of a break.

Now, how did someone like _her_ get into a situation like _this_?

She knew that this whole mess had actually started a long time ago, but still, HOW did it happen to HER?

She was a complete nobody. And she was just fine with that. Yeah, life wasn't exactly ideal, but it was good and she didn't have any complaints that she wasn't able to live with. But, then again, who didn't have a complaint about something in their life. But, that wasn't the point.

The point was WHY was she here?

She didn't have the answer for that, but, looking back on the events that led her up to this moment, she couldn't say that she actually had a whole lot of regrets. Yeah, there were moments that she wished she could redo, but hey, that was life for ya.

In fact, if she was given the opportunity to relive her life, she would probably do the same thing all over again…with one exception: stab Hojo's face in with a rusty spoon, at least.

She shouldn't have to try to justify that one. The man was PURE EVIL! And she knew several people who would agree (and help her with) on that one.

She jumped as she heard something scuffle nearby. She looked up to see some children walking by, not seeing her leaning against the building. She smiled as she remembered them.

However, she groaned as she realized just _how_ much farther she still had to go before she was in the clear.

Reluctantly, after making sure she was safe for the moment, she pushed herself off of the wall and started making her way to her destination.

…

There was no way to tell just how much time had passed here. All she knew was that she was taking a long time and that she didn't really have any time to waste at all.

She had FINALLY made it to Wutai, where one of her adventures began when she met her friends. The down side: she still wasn't halfway to where she needed to be.

But, she had to keep going. She had people waiting for her. Some of them were depending on her to come back. She couldn't waste time here! Nor could she afford to die here!

She looked to the side as she saw a group of familiar looking people passing by. She smiled as she saw her friends having a somewhat normal day (at least what she assumed to be normal for them).

She wished that they could help her, but they couldn't. No one could help her here. She had to do this by herself. If she failed, then she was simply too weak for her friends.

She took a moment to think about what her friends might be up to at that moment. Were they worried about her? Did they have faith in her ability to pull through? She hoped so; otherwise she would have to remind them just _who_ they were talking about here.

Then, the face of one friend in particular interrupted her thoughts and she started walking with renewed determination.

She had to make it. She had to pull through. If she didn't, then there was no other choice. If she didn't make it, she would have to have faith in her friends. Faith that they would do what needed to be done if it came to the worst case scenario.

She walked over a bridge and turned a corner in the direction she knew she needed to head.

That was when she froze, terror clear on her face and heart beating frantically at the sight.

Those eyes, there was no mistaking those eyes.

Shit, shit, _shit_! When did he head her off? She could have sworn that she had left him behind a while back.

He smirked.

"Looks like I've found you."

**Well, what do you think? Do you want more?**

**I know it's short, but it's just a prologue. I plan on making the regular chapters much longer than this.**

**Leave a review saying you want more and I will update this story. And don't worry; I will update my other stories like "Nameless" and "Vessel" as well. I just want opinions about how this story looks to you so far.**

**Well, until next time!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Hey everybody! I got two story alerts for this story, so I figured I would go ahead and post this chapter. Just don't kill me if I take a while with updates. This has been a slow month for me with the updates.**

**Well, with that out of the way, time to see how this story really begins.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own FF7. I do own my OC, whose identity you will learn soon.**

Chapter 1

There are several beginnings that happen in a person's life. There is the actual beginning of your life (the day you were born). There is the beginning of your education and school life (which is either pleasant or a living hell, interpret that as you may). There is the beginning of a friendship (as cheesy as that might sound, it's still a beginning, damn it!). There is the beginning of adventure and the beginning of a nightmare.

There are so many beginnings to choose from.

Hmmmm…..

I suppose that the best place to start this story is the day that I first met some of the Turks and had somehow got dragged into their mission.

I could start this story right after that or some time before this day, but I really feel that this is the best place to start. It just feels like that this one event led to several beginnings that happen later, one of them being the beginning of a nightmare.

Now, I suggest that you make yourself comfortable. Grab some snacks and drinks and sit in your comfy chair because I can tell you now, this is anything but a short story. In fact, if you have the whole story here, you're going to be here for a while.

…..

"Just how much longer are we gonna tail this guy?"

Reno was getting annoyed, and bored, trailing after some idiot who had somehow managed to get his hands on a very important item.

"Just be patient, Reno. In order to shut down the entire gang, we need to know the location of their hideout."

"Whatever."

Reno leaned against the side of a building, bored out of his head.

The Turks had been assigned to get back a flash drive that contained some bank codes that belonged to Shinra. Somehow, someone from a local gang, that, for some reason, went broke a while back, managed to threaten a Shinra employee to get the codes and give it to them.

They had already found out the identity of the employee who hacked Shinra's system. It should go without saying that he no longer works for the company, or breathes for that matter.

And now, Tseng was tailing the thief while Reno and Rude wait about a block away in different directions in case the gangster decides to suddenly change route. Cissnei, the new rookie, was hiding somewhere nearby in case something went down.

Suddenly, Reno heard music. More specifically, he heard guitar music. Someone was playing nearby. He looked around the corner of the building he was leaning against and spotted a street performer not too far away.

It was a girl who looked about 14. She had thick, short brown hair that barely passed her jaw with her bangs being about an inch longer than the rest of her hair and framing her face. She wore a cream-colored jacket with a white t-shirt underneath. She also wore loose black pants and worn-out tennis shoes.

Reno ducked his head back around the corner and stared down in thought. He was thinking that he heard of someone that fits that description, but he couldn't remember.

"Reno, the suspect is heading your way. Make sure he doesn't see you."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm on it."

Oh well. It probably wasn't anyone important anyway.

She smiled as she saw all the local children starting to gather around. They always loved it when she played her guitar. And frankly, the children were amongst the few people that didn't piss her off or annoy her.

She closed her eyes as she started to reach the end of the song she decided to sing to them.

_Now I know why all the trees change in the fall_

_I know you were on my side even when I was wrong_

_And I love you for giving me your eyes_

_For staying back and watching me shine_

_And I didn't know if you knew_

_So I'm taking this chance to say_

_That I had the best day with you today_

The children cheered as the song ended.

"Play another!"

"Yeah, play another Taylor Swift song!"

"No, Paramore!"

She laughed and shook her head.

"No need to fight over it, you guys. But, since I just now played a Taylor Swift song, I'll go ahead and do one from Paramore. Now, did you want to hear a specific song or should I choose?"

The girl that said Paramore looked up at her as she thought.

"Misguided Ghosts."

"Now that, I can do."

Personally, she liked that song as well. She tapped her foot to get a feel for the tempo and started playing.

_I'm going away for a while_

_But I'll be back,_

_Don't try and follow me_

'_Cause I'll return as soon as possible_

_See I'm trying to find my place_

_But it might not be here where I feel safe_

_We all learn to make mistakes _

_And run from them, from them_

_With no direction_

_We'll run from them, from them_

_With no conviction_

'_Cause I'm just one of those ghosts_

_Traveling endlessly_

_Don't need no roads_

_In fact they follow me_

_And we just go in circles_

She found the song calming for some reason. Unfortunately, she wasn't going to be able to finish the song for the kids this time.

"Hey Nia! I thought that I would find you here!"

Oh shit. Why now of all times? Would this guy ever learn?

Nia looked up to see the guy who usually harassed her whenever he got the chance. He was just a lanky drunk gangster who didn't know when no meant STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME YOU PERVERT! He was still on the other side of the alley, but it wouldn't take him long to reach them and then that would be when the trouble would start.

She looked down to see the children starting to get scared. They all knew who he was as well, or at least, what he was a part of.

"Run home now. Things are going to get a bit violent soon."

A couple of the kids looked up at her in concern, obviously worried about how this encounter would turn out, but ran off all the same, with the exception of one nine year old boy. He stood next to her, trying to make himself look big despite how scared he actually was.

"I'll help."

Nia shook her head.

"Don't worry. I've dealt with him a couple of times before. Just run on home. I'll be back another time to hang out with you guys."

The boy looked up at her.

"But – "

"Don't worry about it. I'll be back to play more songs for you guys."

He didn't want to back down. He knew that this guy had been harassing her for some time and he was getting worried that something bad was going to happen to her this time. But, she did handle him before. That was true. But, he wanted to hear her say something before going.

"You promise?"

She nodded.

"I promise. Now go."

He ran off, hoping she would be okay.

Nia looked up as her usual pain-in-the-ass idiot stopped in front of her, wearing a smug smile on his face.

"That was a pretty little song you were singing there. Why did you stop?"

"How many times do I have to send you to the hospital before you learn to leave me alone?"

Her voice was calm, but there was the threatening undertone that, for some reason, he could never pick up on. Or he just ignored it. Either way, it didn't make the guy waver.

"Oh, you underestimate me. I'll keep coming back to see that pretty face of yours no matter how many times you break my wrist or my nose. I get out of the hospital eventually from something like that."

"In that case, wait right there for a minute. I'll be sure to send you there with a coma this time."

Nia made to put her guitar in the case that was sitting next to her, but stopped as she saw the idiot pull out a knife.

"Oh, I've learned all of your tricks now. Don't think you'll get the upper hand on me this time."

She glared at him.

"Just what do you want, anyway?"

He laughed.

"Oh, I just want to spend some quality time with ya. But, I do know that my boss wants you to pay us what you owe."

She scoffed.

"I stole everything fair and square. Therefore, everything I took became mine to do with as I pleased. Owing you guys would be saying that I borrowed, which would imply that I actually had any intention of returning anything, which I didn't. So no, I don't owe you guys shit. Now, leave me alone."

Reno watched this exchanged from his hiding place around the corner where he stood. He found the conversation interesting. However, he needed the target to stop harassing the girl and head towards the hideout.

"I don't think you have any idea of just how much trouble you're in, especially with that offer we made you in the first place. You could've just turned it down."

"I did. Multiple times. And you guys still wouldn't leave me alone. So really, you shouldn't be surprised. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have places I need to be."

Nia moved again to out her guitar away, but quickly moved it in front of her when she saw him slash at her.

The knife sliced through all of the guitar strings and made a deep cut in it. She looked down at it. Her only way for making an honest living and stress reliever was useless now. Now, she was pissed.

"You're not going anywhere. You're going to come with me. I'm just on my way back from the job you turned down and I think I'll get a pay raise if I bring you back along with me."

She glared at him.

"You really are an idiot. Wait, scratch that. An idiot would have done your job better because they wouldn't have said anything about being on a job like that."

The guy was starting to get pissed. She could see that. Reno could also see that and was debating about jumping in when he saw the target starting to advance on her.

But, just as he got within arms length of her, she looked over his shoulder.

"Hey! It's about time that you got here!"

"What?"

He turned around to see who she was yelling at.

BAM! Then, the whole world went dark.

Reno watched as the street performer whacked her would-be assailant with the now useless guitar upside his head. The guitar was smashed into a couple of pieces, making Reno wonder just how hard she had hit him with it.

Nia looked down at what was left of the neck in her hand. Now she had to find some other way to make a living because, currently, she couldn't afford a new guitar. She walked up to the knocked out idiot and reached into his pocket.

"The price for your stupidity this time is a concussion and one stolen wallet," she said as she pulled out said wallet.

Just then, a middle-aged man walked by and saw the scene before him.

"Nia! Are you asking to get killed?"

"What? He was asking for it! Besides, I don't see why everyone is so scared of these people. They're not very organized and I swear half of them are idiots."

"That may be so, but they are idiots with guns."

"So, that's no excuse to not fight back."

The man sighed.

"You're going to get in trouble again."

"You're only in trouble if you get caught."

"Hey you!"

Nia looked up in time to see a couple of other guys from the same gang rounding the corner and spotting her next to the unconscious body that they recognized.

"Gotta run!"

She got up and started running the other way.

Reno watched as the guitarist/thief ran out of sight. He counted about five guys in the group that spotted her stealing the target's wallet. Three of them ran off after her and the other two were trying to wake up their fallen friend.

He flipped open his PHS and sent Tseng a text briefly explaining what happened.

_Target got pwned by a street performer. She took his wallet and ran when his buddies showed up._

Reno waited a minute before feeling his PHS buzz with a response.

_Does the target still have the package?_

Package? It was just a flash drive. Wasn't that a bit too small to be referred to as a package? Oh well.

Reno thought about it for a minute before starting to text back.

_Think so. Thief only stole his – _

"Son of a bitch!"

Reno looked up to see two enraged gang members towering over the target. He was cowering beneath them, obviously afraid of what they might do.

"I don't know! I swear I had it! It was in my wallet!"

One of the men towering over him grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up roughly.

"I'll tell you what happened. That bitch stole your wallet! We saw her! You let that thieving little slum rat steal from us again!"

Oh shit. This wasn't part of the plan.

Reno deleted the text and sent a new one to Tseng.

_No. Dumbass kept it in his wallet which got stolen._

A few seconds later, Tseng messaged back.

_Find the thief and retrieve the package. We'll get the hideout another time. The rest of us are on the way._

There was little doubt in his head that Tseng was just as annoyed about this as Reno was.

He left the opposite direction of the three gang members, one of which was phoning their boss and the one on the ground blubbering as though he thought he would be able to find the right thing to say to lessen his punishment. Reno had little doubt that, no matter what the target said, his boss wasn't going to lessen his punishment.

So far, he agreed with the girl. The guy was an idiot.

**Okay, this seems like a nice place to stop at.**

**Soooooo…what do you think? I've been having a slow month and a half, so I hope that this is good. **

**Remember, there is a hidden blue button at the bottom of the page that says "Review". If you happen to find this button, click on it, leave a review, and you may win cookies! Winners will also be mentioned in the next chapter. Bye!**


	3. Chapter 2

**Hello fans of FF7! Welcome to the second chapter! I hope you have enjoyed the story thus far. I'm certainly enjoying planning it out. **

**I have now started second semester, so, depending on how busy my classes keep me, I may not be able to update every now and then. If I do, it would most likely be during the weekend. I just hope that I would be able to hold onto my muse long enough to get this story somewhere.**

**Well, as I said, those that have reviewed thus far will be acknowledged.**

**So, thank you to Pain and Betrayal and Fast Moving Cloud for the encouraging reviews. I will also take the time to recognize blush me love, Bubbles of Ebil, and Fast Moving Cloud for adding this story to the alerts. Thank you all and here are your cookies! *throws cookies***

**Now, it's Showtime!**

**Disclaimer: I am not the genius that came up with FF7, so I don't own the characters, places, etc. I do own my OC, Nia.**

Chapter 2

Fifteen minutes had passed and Reno was starting to get annoyed by the girl. She was either already caught by the gang members or she was really good at running away and hiding. Either way, he hadn't seen her since she first took off running with the flash drive.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming up behind him. He turned around, mentally preparing for a fight should it be one of the gang members while keeping his form looking laid back, only to see that Rude was catching up to him.

"I take it you haven't found her, either."

Reno had given everyone a description of the girl five minutes into the search after he lost track of her.

Rude shook his head.

Reno sighed.

"So much for this being a quick and easy assignment. Well, we better keep searching."

Rude nodded.

They spent another ten minutes searching the slums trying to find any sign of the girl. Right when they thought that she went into hiding for the night, they heard a struggle nearby.

Reno crept along the building wall with Rude behind him and peeked around the corner.

Not only did he see the girl that stole the flash drive, but he also saw that she struggling to escape two of the gangsters that ran after her. One of them was behind her with his arms wrapped around her torso and trapping her arms. She was lifted off the ground a couple of inches and she was trying to kick the one in front of her relentlessly.

"Ow! Stupid brat kicked me in the shin!"

"Well I'm holding her down the best I can. You do something to knock her out!"

"Fine!"

Once he stopped hopping on his foot and the pain in his shin had somewhat subsided, he stepped forward to do something about the struggling captive.

However, right when Reno and Rude were about to step in, something unexpected happened.

She fainted.

The two gangsters looked at each other, both momentarily surprised by this unexpected turn of events. But, she only needed a moment to take them by surprise.

She threw her head back and, as she hoped, made impact with her captor's nose, breaking it.

He had let go of her in shock and in pain. While he was clutching his nose, Nia reached into her sleeve, but, unfortunately, the other one had already pulled out his gun and had it pointed at her. She didn't have enough time to react.

_BANG!_

She jumped and almost screamed as the man in front of her just dropped dead. Another shot rang out and the one behind her dropped as well. She looked around, trying to find the source, when a man in a suit started walking up towards her. He looked foreign to her and he had black hair tied up into a short ponytail.

He was putting away a gun when she heard others coming in from the opposite direction.

"Hey Tseng! Nice shot!"

"Reno…"

Nia looked around at the people surrounding her. They weren't part of the gang that was after her. And they were all wearing suits, just like…

"Well, we don't have all day, so I'll get straight to the point."

Tseng turned to face the thief.

"We'll be taking the wallet you stole, preferably with all of its contents."

She stared at him for a moment.

"What you actually want was the flash drive, right?"

They were all taken aback. Apparently, she did have time to go through the wallet. Tseng was hoping that she would be too busy running to find the flash drive.

"What makes you say that? How do you know we just don't want to go max out his credit card at a bar somewhere?"

She turned her attention to the redhead that stood next to the bald guy. He appeared laid back and whatnot, but his eyes, at the moment, told a different story. Apparently, they were hoping that she wouldn't know about it.

"You guys work with a girl name Cissnei, right? You're all wearing the same suits."

Tseng raised an eyebrow.

"And how do you know Cissnei?"

These people seemed to be cautious as well. She knew that they wanted the full story, but they were running out of time. So, she decided to try to tell them what happened as fast as possible.

…..

_Ha! Victory was hers! She was sure of it._

_She had climbed up a fire escape and through an open window before the three men could catch up to her. She stayed inside as she heard them run past, not even aware of her presence there._

_She made her way to the other side of the building and climbed out through another open window onto another fire escape. She climbed down a bit and sat on one of the landings. She pulled out the wallet she stole and started going through it. _

_She went straight for the gil. Credit cards and the like could be traced and she had no interests in being found. Then, something caught her eye. It looked like…_

"_Hey, you up there!"_

_She jumped and looked over the railing. There was a girl in a suit waving at her._

_Nia shook her head as she climbed down._

"_Shhhhhh! Don't yell! Otherwise they'll come here!"_

_The girl walked over to her._

"_Sorry. It's just that you have something I need to retrieve."_

"_Retrieve?" _

_She wondered…_

_She pulled out the wallet and opened it._

"_Describe this thing that you need to retrieve."_

_The girl looked a bit taken aback by the sudden demand, but complied all the same._

"_It's a flash drive."_

_Nia pulled the flash drive out of the wallet._

"_Like this one?"_

_She nodded._

"_Yeah. That guy you stole the wallet from stole that. I'm supposed to get it back."_

_Nia shrugged and handed it over. She had no use for a flash drive and she would only get ripped off if she tried to pawn it off. The guy at the pawn shop was always ripping her off._

_The girl seemed a bit surprised that she was handing it over so easily._

"_I have no use for the thing, so you might as well go ahead and take it."_

_She'd put it in her pocket._

"_Thanks. What's your name?"_

"_Nia."_

"_I'm Cissnei. Hopefully, we'll be able to see each other around."_

_Nia was thrown off a bit by the last comment. There weren't exactly too many people that said that they wanted to see her around later._

"_Well, see ya."_

_With that, Cissnei walked off._

….

"I see, so Cissnei has the flash drive. That's good to know."

It looked like their job was done. Cissnei should have headed back to headquarters upon retrieving the item. Then again, she was supposed to have called when she had secured it…

"Well, in that case, let's head back. Cissnei is probably back home already."

Nia shook her head.

"Actually, that wasn't all that happened…"

Tseng looked up, wondering what else had gone wrong now.

…

_Nia started walking home convinced that she no longer had anyone tailing her._

_Well, she couldn't have been more wrong._

_The moment she had made it to the end of the alley, the three guys that were chasing her earlier suddenly surrounded her._

_One of them slammed her against the wall, stunning her. Then, he grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up._

"_Gotcha' now…"_

_She started to struggle as she saw him raise his fist._

_Then, almost out of nowhere, someone body slammed the guy off of her. Nia landed on her feet and looked to see Cissnei standing in front of her. _

"_What are you doing here?" Why was someone trying to protect her?_

_Cissnei looked over at her and smiled at her._

"_Well, I can't just leave you here to defend yourself now, can I?"_

_Nia frowned at her. Then she looked around at the three guys that started to surround them._

"_Listen, Turk. Our business is with that brat right there. Why don't you just get going? There's no reason for you to care about a slum rat like her."_

_Nia glared at the man who said that. She really hated these guys._

"_I'm not helping a slum rat. I'm helping a friend."_

_Nia did a double take at that last sentence. _

_Friend? On what grounds did Cissnei consider her as a friend? She was really nothing more than a thief that accidentally stole Shinra property (yeah, she knew who the Turks worked for)._

_However, she didn't have time to think about it since the gang members moved in to attack._

_Nia would admit that Cissnei was good at fighting, especially with the big shuriken she pulled out. Unfortunately, that didn't scare off the guys. It just made them pull out their knives. _

_Luckily for Nia, she always had a couple of knives hidden on her person, so she reached up her sleeves to grab them and continued to fight._

_Had it been a fair fight, they probably would've won. Unfortunately, Nia had never known anyone from the gang for fighting fair._

_Right as she thought that, the guy in front of her threw a handful of dirt into her eyes, temporarily blinding her._

_Nia tried to rub the dirt out of her eyes in time to react to whatever his next move is, but her vision was still bleary as she saw a blurred figure rush towards her._

_The next thing she knew was that she was suddenly shoved to the side. Nia heard a thwack while she was going down. When she looked up, her vision was cleared and she was surprised by what she saw._

_Cissnei had fallen to the ground due to a hit to her head by a pipe. She was standing where Nia was just a second ago. She couldn't completely wrap her head around what had happened. Cissnei had pushed her out of the way? She had even taken a hit for her? Why would she do that?_

_Unfortunately, Nia didn't have time to ponder her questions when one of the guys lunged for her._

_She looked over at Cissnei in time to see one of the gang members pick her up and started carrying her away._

"_Wait! Stop!"_

_She ran after them. Whatever the Turks had been rumored to do, this one had helped her out in a bind and was captured for it. She wasn't ungrateful. She knew that she had to get her out of the trouble that she had put her in. Nia knew full well what these men would do to her._

_Unfortunately, just as the two disappeared around the corner, one of the others that was with her grabbed her from behind and lifted her off the ground. That one kept an iron grip on her while the other one circled around front. She then proceeded to try to kick the shit out of him._

_It was moments later that the Turks showed up._

…..

"What?"

Reno couldn't believe that one of them got caught by third-rate gang members.

Tseng looked down in thought. Not only was one of their own captured, but they also had the flash drive. They must have headed back to their hideout by now. But the problem was that they didn't know where that was.

Nia nodded.

"That is what happened. I swear I'm not lying." What would she gain from lying anyway?

Tseng sighed.

"We have to get both Cissnei and the flash drive back at all costs. The problem is, we don't know where they are now…"

"I'm assuming they went back to their place."

Tseng looked back up at the thief.

"That doesn't really help when we don't know where their hideout is."

Nia raised an eyebrow.

"Hideout? That says that the crappy warehouse they stay at is supposed to be a secret."

All three Turks looked at her at this point.

"You know where they're at?"

Nia nodded.

"Yeah, I've been there before. I didn't know it was some big secret."

Tseng stepped towards her to gain her attention.

"Will you be able to take us there?"

Nia gave them all a scrutinizing stare. She normally didn't do stuff like this for complete strangers, but she knew what would happen to the girl if she left her in her current situation. If she didn't try to help her out, she would feel like shit.

She nodded.

"Yeah. She helped me out and got caught because of me. It's the least I can do."

It was Tseng's turn now to scrutinize the thief. Then he remembered that she probably could be trusted for reasons that the other Turks weren't aware of.

"Well then, lead the way."

Reno waved one hand in no particular direction, signaling her to take the lead.

She nodded.

"We have to hurry. I know what those guys typically do to their captives…especially girls."

This got everyone's attention and they wasted no time in following the kid through the various streets and alleys of the slums.

Throughout the whole trip, Tseng was remembering something that they had been told by Don Corneo shortly before the theft.

"_Ok Corneo, what do you have to tell us this time around?"_

_Tseng and Reno were at Corneo's mansion to gather information on the underworld like they did every month. _

_Corneo was obviously freaked out by their presence, but he tried to stay calm as he looked down in thought._

"_Well, there really isn't much going on…except for this one thing. But I don't think it's really of much importance."_

_Tseng sighed._

"_No matter how insignificant it seems, you still have to report it."_

_Corneo looked up at them for a moment. Then he shrugged._

"_It's just this third-rate gang seemed to be planning on trying to steal from the Shinra Company."_

_Both Tseng and Reno glared at him._

"_And you thought that this wasn't important because…"_

"_Hmph. They have no means of pulling off something so big. I heard that they've tried to hire a local thief, but that didn't go over so well for them."_

_Tseng raised an eyebrow._

"_And why's that?"_

_Corneo laughed at this._

"_The thief they tried to hire was small-time, but it looked like she did have the quality to be a good thief after all."_

"_Who's she? And what do you mean by that?"_

"_This thief is nothing more than a kid from the slums. She steals because she has to, although she has been quiet recently. But that's probably because of that incident."_

"_What incident?"_

_Tseng was starting to get annoyed about having to ask all these questions just to get information on one person._

_Corneo laughed again._

"_Well, the gang wanted to hire her for the job of stealing from Shinra. She refused. I don't know why. I was told it had to do with principle or morals, but really, what kind of morals does a thief have to speak of?"_

_Neither Turk said anything, but the looks on their faces basically said that he better get to the point._

"_Well, the gang didn't stop there. They kept trying to convince her to accept the job. I think they were getting desperate to try to hire a kid for such a job. They were never very organized or anything like that. But, eventually, the repeated offers just pissed her off. She has a reputation for being stubborn. Eventually, she broke into their hideout and stole everything of value that they had. They're flat broke now!"_

_Corneo laughed again._

"_It's easily the most embarrassing thing that could happen to them."_

"_Where can we find this thief?"_

_Tseng wanted to cover all the bases. And, if they had to go give the gang leader a message about messing with Shinra, she would obviously know where to find them._

_The Don shook his head._

"_No. She's a cunning one. It was originally believed that she lived in a small warehouse in Sector 4, so I sent one of my men there to offer her a…job. It looked like nobody had lived there in years. Turns out that she only goes there when she thinks she's being followed. Nobody knows where she lives. At least, nobody would admit to knowing where she lives."_

_Tseng sighed. This person was easily becoming annoying. _

"_Do you at least have a description?"_

_Corneo nodded._

"_Yes. I believe that she's about…14 now, is it? She has short brown hair and is often seen wearing a light-colored jacket. That's all I can remember. I've never seen her myself."_

_Tseng nodded._

"_Well, if that's all you have, we'll just get going now."_

_Tseng had his suspicions as to who this person was, but he was hoping he was wrong._

…..

"Okay, we're here."

Reno looked over her shoulder to see an old warehouse with the door guarded by three meatheads with guns.

"It looks easy enough to break in."

Nia looked up at him.

"From the outside, yes. But inside there's typically about 20 of them gathered in a front room, drinking and whatnot. It would be hard to get in through here without attracting a lot of attention."

Reno looked down at her.

"Then what do you suggest?"

"The backdoor."

With that, she took off, out of sight of the guards, and down another alley with the Turks following her again.

When she stopped, she looked around another corner.

Reno looked as well to see one door guarded by a single guard.

"It looks like they still haven't beefed up security back here."

Reno looked down at her.

"I take it you've done this before."

She shrugged.

"Anybody got a Tranquilizer or something to that affect?"

Tseng dug through his pockets to find a Tranquilizer dart. But, before he could say anything, she snatched it from his hand and started walking towards the guard while signaling them to stay put.

Reno looked back around the corner to catch the exchange.

The guard looked up to see her approaching him. He recognized her almost instantly.

"Hey! What are you doing here? You must have a death wish to show your face here!"

Nia frowned at him.

"What? I'm just walking around minding my own business. Yet, here you are, complaining about me being here when there are three Turks rappelling down from the roof." She pointed up to a space above and behind him.

"What?"

He turned around and looked up, expecting to see the Turks she spoke of. Instead, she reached up with the dart in her hand in got him in the neck. He fell to the ground in a matter of seconds.

Disregarding the body completely, Nia opened the backdoor to the warehouse and looked inside. Not a soul was in sight.

She signaled to the Turks and ran inside. Now, the infiltration/rescue mission began.

**Once again, reviews would be appreciated. I would love to know what you guys think of this story thus far.**

**Peace out! **


	4. Chapter 3

**Once again, I am back. I haven't gotten any responses about the last chapter, so I'm hoping that it wasn't bad or anything. But, my traffic reports say that this story is starting to get more attention, so I'm posting yet another update. **

**Now you get to find out just what happens in the hideout full of enemies and questionable allies.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own FF7…blah, blah, blah…I do own my OC Nia. Sigh, is this necessary for EVERY chapter?**

Chapter 3

So that was how I was dragged into the Turks' mission. That's right. I was dragged in because some idiot thought that it was a good idea to keep a valuable object in his _wallet_. I stole that thing _frequently_. You'd think he would have learned from all of our previous encounters. Sigh…but I digress.

So, I can take a guess as to what you're thinking at this point.

Oh, she helped them kick ass, rescue their friend, and was probably offered to be a Turk, right?

Wrong. This isn't one of those stories. It's not one of those "We came, we saw, we conquered" things. The reality was that shit had hit the fan and someone had taken the fall by the end of the day.

We never saw it coming…

…

Reno ran in right behind the kid as she ran down the empty hallway. She didn't slow down, and they had yet to run into anymore sentries, which made him wonder just how many times she had done this. It was apparent that she had been here before.

Suddenly, she stopped at a corner and signaled them to stop as well. She flattened herself against the wall and peeked around the corner.

Just as she thought, there was the same guy with headphones on at the other end of the hallway.

She didn't know who the bigger idiot was: the idiot who absolutely failed at sentry duty or the idiot who assigned an idiot to sentry duty.

Well, she didn't have time to think that over now, so she decided to do what she did the last time she encountered him.

Nia looked around the area immediately surrounding her and the Turks. There was a crate up against the wall she was leaning against. That should work. Now all she needed was…

Damn it! There wasn't a pipe or something for her to use like last time. Then she looked towards the Turks. She suspected that they all had guns, but guns would be too loud. She looked towards the redheaded Turk and saw something in his left hand. It looked like some kind of metal baton.

Whatever the hell it was, she didn't care. It would serve her purposes just fine.

Reno raised an eyebrow at the kid when she pointed at his EMR and held her hand out for it. She was telling him quietly to hand it over. However, he was reluctant to just hand over his weapon to someone who bashed someone in the head with a guitar.

He gave her a questioning look, trying to get her to say why she needed it without making any noise.

She just gave him an exasperated look and motioned for him to hand over the EMR.

Before he could protest, Tseng whispered in his ear, "Just give it to her. We don't have time."

Reluctantly, he handed over the EMR.

As soon as she grabbed onto it, she put her foot on the crate and pushed it a couple of inches, making sure that it made a grating sound against the floor.

Now Tseng wanted to ask just what she was thinking, but he heard footsteps running towards them as she crouched as low as she could against the wall. His hand automatically reached for his gun as the sentry came closer.

The guard looked around the corner and the first thing he saw were three men. Before he could shout to alert anyone else, the next thing he saw was the ground.

The Turks watched as the girl whacked the sentry in the shin, causing him to double over and hop on one foot. While he was crouched down, the girl sprung up and whacked the back of his head, which was now exposed to her.

The man dropped to the ground. She threw the EMR back at Reno and jumped over the unconscious man as she rounded the corner.

The Turks followed her down the hall only to see her stop in front of a vent.

She jumped up…..and came back down. She was too short to reach it.

Tseng came up to her and decided to try to make sense of her actions.

"What are you doing?"

She looked at him as she answered.

"This vent leads into the front room where everyone is typically gathered. I figured I could crawl in and see if she's in there. If she's not, then she's somewhere in the back of this place and she'll be easier to get to."

"And if she's in there?" Reno couldn't help but ask.

"Then you're going to have to raise some hell to get to her."

It made sense, except there was one thing that caught Reno's attention.

"What do you mean by 'you're'? You're not going to help us with this?"

She gave him a flat look.

"That room is the equivalent of a lion's den to me, especially with how much I have pissed them off. I'm not that much of a fighter. Besides, I've got you guys this far. And a gang like this shouldn't be a problem for Turks, unless it's all hype."

Nia didn't mean to insult them, but from the look on Red's face, she had accidentally hit a nerve.

The bald man nudged Red in the shoulder and gave him a look (at least she assumed he did. She couldn't tell with the sunglasses). Red relaxed a bit, but he still looked a bit peeved.

The foreign guy shook his head.

"That's fine. We plan on avoiding a fight if we can and we don't expect you to be dragged in one either. Besides…" he looked at her full in the face with a very small smirk (she almost didn't catch it in the bad lighting), "I can assure you that our skills are anything but hype."

Nia wasn't sure if she should be comforted by that fact or not (there were all sorts of rumors about the Turks). But, that wasn't something she should be concerned about.

She nodded. Then she looked around for a chair or another crate to stand on so she could reach the vent.

However, her search came to an end when she felt herself get picked up and found the vent she was too short to reach staring at her in the face. She looked behind her to see that the bald guy had picked her up. He must have guessed what she was looking for.

Nia wasted no time in opening the vent and crawling in.

The Turks waited for a couple of minutes in the hallway, but it felt a lot longer than that. They didn't know the layout of the place or where the sentries would be placed or where Cissnei and the flash drive were being kept. The only person who knew all of this was in the vent and was in no position to give them any warnings without giving herself away.

Finally, the girl crawled out of the vent with Rude's help.

"Well?" They were all anxious about what was going on, and the look on her face wasn't helping the anxiety they all felt but wouldn't show.

"She's in the front room. It doesn't look like they've done anything to her…" the Turks all relaxed upon hearing this, "…but it also looks like they are waiting for something. Everyone is in there. We're going to have to proceed with caution and then there's no avoiding a fight if you want to get her out of there."

Tseng nodded. It wasn't an ideal position, but at least they had an idea of what they were getting into.

Nia didn't like the conditions either, but she, at least, knew how to escape if it came to it. She started walking down the hallway, motioning the Turks to follow her.

"I know a way in that they hardly use. It's a bit out of the way, especially since it's not really next to Cissnei, but it'll get us in, hopefully with the element of surprise."

Reno was starting to wonder how many times she had been here in order to know so much. But, now was not the time for questions. The rookie was outnumbered, most likely disarmed, and needed help. The questions could wait.

They all moved as quickly and quietly as they could. After a couple of minutes of sneaking around and not seeing any guards, Tseng couldn't help but get a bit suspicious.

Suddenly, she stopped and held a hand up to signal them to stop as well.

"Wait here." She started walking off towards where another hallway joined the one they were in.

"Why?" Nia turned around to see looks of suspicion on their faces.

"It's too quiet." With that, she continued walking. She reached the corner and peeked around it. Then she quickly pulled back as a gunshot echoed down the hallway.

"Shit! They were waiting for us!" She ran past the Turks before the armed gang members could start chasing her. She didn't pay any attention to what the Turks were doing as she ran. She just knew that she had to get out and figure out something else to do.

However, her planning came to an end as she ran past another adjoining hallway.

_BANG!_

The Turks, who were pulling out their weapons in preparation for a fight with the guys at one end of the hallway, turned at the sound of a gunshot. They all saw the girl as she fell to the ground.

Tseng tensed a bit until he saw her curl up to clutch her leg. She had been shot in the leg. She wouldn't be able to run from the fight now.

Reno and Rude were already starting to take out the guys that had been guarding the rarely used door. Tseng ran over to help the girl, but he was too late. A man ran out of the adjoining hallway she laid in front of and started dragging her back in. Tseng pulled his gun out to stop him, but the man wasn't alone. Two other gangsters came around the corner and started shooting their automatics at them.

The good thing about automatic guns was that they had low accuracy. So while they were shooting in their direction, Tseng took two well aimed shots and the two men fell to the floor, dead.

Tseng turned around to see that Reno and Rude were already done at their end.

Reno looked around only to see two corpses and no girl amongst them.

"They took her with them."

Reno sighed. This was supposed to be a simple mission. Follow the target, locate the hideout, and retrieve the package while shutting down the gang (in other words, kill everyone and blow shit up). Instead, a girl off the streets stole the stolen item, handed it to Cissnei, who got kidnapped, and now their guide was in trouble. This was just one of those days…..

"So, now what?" Rude spoke up for the first time during the mission.

Tseng walked down the hallway, around the corner, and to the door that she was trying to direct them to.

The door was already cracked open, so he could see a bit of the room. He saw the man from earlier drag the wounded girl in through a different door.

"You were right boss. She was in the hallway you said she was going to use. But she had Turks with her."

Cissnei, who was tied up and sitting on the floor against a wall, looked up as she saw the girl she helped out earlier get dragged in. She saw that her leg was bleeding badly.

The ringleader, who was a tall man with a lot of muscle tone, scoffed.

"Like I said, if you made her think we haven't learn from the last time, she'll do things the same way. Coming in from the back, using that door over there…"

"Yeah, but sir, what about the Turks?"

"Hmph. The shooting has stopped, which means that they're either dead or waiting to make a move. But still, that's why we have this pretty one here," he gestured towards Cissnei.

"If they're big on looking after their comrades, then they won't do anything that will make us kill her."

"And if they're not?"

The ringleader laughed.

"Just trust me here. If they didn't care, they wouldn't have bothered with sneaking around. They would have just blown the shit out of us by now."

The lackey remained quiet after that. The leader turned his attention to Nia.

"Just set her over there next to the other one. Don't bother with tying her up. She can't go anywhere now."

The man dropped her next to Cissnei. Nia tried not to hiss in pain as her bad leg took some of the impact. She looked down to see that there was a lot of blood coming out of her leg. At least, a lot more blood than she was used to seeing.

The leader walked over until he was right in front of her and then crouched down to her level.

"Now, we both know that you owe us a lot of money after your last little venture in here."

Nia rolled her eyes. She knew that most people would be panicking and spilling their guts in a situation like this, but she wasn't about to give them the satisfaction by acting like a whipped dog.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I did hear about your money troubles. I'm guessing your little deals aren't going so well since you can't pay your suppliers now."

"Why you little –" One of the men that was closer to them stepped forward with the intent to beat her, but a look from his boss stopped him in his tracks.

He was trying to stay calm about this. She could tell.

"Yeah, well, I'm willing to forgive your debt here. I will even overlook this whole incident with you helping the Turks. All I ask is that you do this one thing."

When she didn't respond, he grabbed her bad leg and squeezed where the bullet wound was, making her hiss in pain.

"All I need is for you to give me what you stole from Dale, and this whole incident disappears."

**Oh no! Nia and Cissnei are both trapped with no way out! What will the Turks do? Stay tuned for the next chapter!**

**Also, reviews are helpful as they motivate me to try to update as soon as possible! So drop a review and let me know what you think.**

**And, for those of you who are in the part of the US that is going through the BIG winter storm that's happening right now, stay warm!**

**Later!**


	5. Chapter 4

**I have finally gotten over my writer's block for this chapter! I have all the ideas for much later chapters, but I was stuck on how to do the now. But, I have it now, so I can continue!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 7. I do own my OC, Nia.**

Chapter 4

"Huh?" What was he talking about?

"Don't play dumb. We know you took it. So, just hand it over and we'll let you go to have that leg of yours healed."

It took a minute in her pain-induced haze to grasp just what he was talking about. He still had a grip on the bullet wound in her leg. Then she realized what he was talking about. They thought that she still had the flash drive that they stole. They didn't search Cissnei?

She would have turned her head towards the Turk to confirm this, but that would give them away. She started thinking. If they thought that she still had it, then maybe she could drag this out long enough for the other Turks to do something to get them out of there.

"Do you mean the wallet I stole from that dumbass?"

The leader nodded as he let go of her leg.

"I steal that thing frequently. And it's his own problem because it's his wallet. Why is everyone else bitching about something that isn't their problem?"

His eye twitched. His patience was running thin already. Nia wondered just how long it was going to take for the Turks to come up with a plan. That foreign guy said that they weren't all hype. Now was the time to prove it.

"Look, just hand it over. If you do that, we'll even let the Turk go. So how about it?"

Sniff, sniff, she smelled bullshit. There was no way he was going to let them go.

"Yeah, that sounds tempting and all, but, uh, there is a bit of a problem."

He frowned. Now to see how far she could push them before either they give her another bullet to the leg or the Turks come in to raise hell, whichever came first. She was hoping for the latter because right now, they were the only ones who could get them out of this mess.

"What?"

Nia looked at him straight in the eye as she answered him.

"I dropped it."

"What!" Wow, that flash drive must have been important if he lost his cool already. It made Nia think that she really would have been ripped off by the guy at the pawn shop.

It took a moment for the leader to regain his composure, a moment that Nia spent thinking _where the hell were those guys?_ Cissnei said nothing. Only sat there as the girl she helped out earlier agitated the gang leader. Apparently, judging from the fact that she didn't rat her out, she knew that he was lying about letting them leave.

"What do you mean that you dropped it? Since when do you drop the stuff you steal?"

She just shrugged, acting just as agitated as the man before her.

"What? Dropping stuff isn't something I exactly advertise. I just lost it while running away."

Although, the truth was that she had actually thrown the wallet away in a dumpster before she got jumped.

"Okay, then where did you drop it?"

Nia shrugged.

"I don't know."

He clenched his fist. Yep, she was definitely testing him now. She supposed it didn't help that she robbed these guys a couple of times before, meaning that he was already pissed at her.

"How do you not know?"

She gave him a flat stare.

"I was kind of busy running away from your goons, so I was a bit too preoccupied to know when I dropped something."

"Hey! We didn't see you drop anything!" Nia turned her attention to the surviving thug that was chasing her.

"Well, for one thing, I managed to lose track of you for a bit, so it could have been then. And plus, you guys were focused on trying to catch me. Have you never heard of tunnel vision, dumbass?"

She got a punch to the stomach for that.

"So, what you're trying to say is that we have to search all of Sector 4 for this damned thing?"

"No, I'm saying to go to the lost and found booth at the end of the street." She got another punch to the stomach for that.

"Yes, you're going to have to search every nook and cranny because it ain't here and I sure as hell don't have it, got it?"

The leader stood up, clearly agitated at how things turned out. But, then he relaxed. That action only made Nia tense.

"Fine, if that's how it is, I guess that means that you are no longer of any use to us."

Shit! She screwed up. She knew that before he started to pull his gun out.

"I'll need the Turk alive only a little bit longer to keep her coworkers at bay, but you are disposable. And no one will have noticed, or even cared, that you just vanished. Not those brats you entertain and these Turks will only chalk you up as a casualty and nothing more. So, this will be the easiest kill I can get away with because no one cares about a lowly little thief."

His words, as hurtful as they sounded, didn't make her flinch. It was as if she didn't care what he had to say.

Nia had learned to tune out these kinds of words a long time ago.

He cocked the gun and aimed right between her eyes. Cissnei looked from between her and the gun pointed at her, but wasn't able to do anything about it since she was tied up.

Right when he was about to pull the trigger, an explosion sounded just outside the door that Nia was dragged through. The noise made him look away from his would-be victim. Then he gave orders to five of the fifteen men that were in the room.

"You five! Go see what that's all about!"

They nodded and started to head towards the source of the disturbance. However, they never made it out of the room.

Cissnei felt relief as she saw Reno and Rude barging in, fists flying and EMR fully charged. Nia, however, noticed that there were only two Turks that were fighting.

On a hunch, she looked to her right and around Cissnei to see that the third one was, indeed, using the door that was ten feet away and making his way towards them while almost everyone else was distracted by Red and Baldy.

The keyword there being "almost."

The gang leader, who seemed to have anticipated something like this, grabbed Cissnei, pulled her up to him, and held the gun to her temple.

Tseng stopped and glared at the man. He couldn't move for his gun without risking her life. He looked towards Reno and Rude. They were still working on the last 9 or so men that were left. The girl had a bad leg, so he didn't expect her to be able to help.

The leader grinned, convinced that he now had a way out. However, he didn't see that girl who was still on the ground reached for something up her sleeve.

In the next instant, Nia lunged forward, ignoring the pain in her leg, and plunged her last knife into the gang leader's shin. He screamed in pain and let go of Cissnei, who fell forward since her legs were still tied up.

Then, Nia activated the orb that was in a slot in the knife's hilt. The next thing anybody knew was that the leader's leg had burst into flames.

He jumped back, screaming in pain as the flames worked their way up towards his torso.

Tseng, using the opportunity before him, pulled out his gun and shot the guy in the head. Death was instant.

The remaining three gang members who saw the burning corpse of their leader panicked and started to make a run for it. A couple of more shots guaranteed that they never made it out the door.

Reno and Rude looked around them. Cissnei was okay. Everyone in the gang was dead. And the thief that led them here was bleeding from the leg, but was otherwise okay.

After untying Cissnei, Tseng walked over to the girl. She was sitting up now, but she was panting slightly. Then he took a look at her leg. She was shot in the shin. He made to roll her pant leg up, but she flinched away as it stung the wound.

"It's okay. I'm just going to assess the wound," he reassured her.

"I'm pretty sure it's fine. Nothing that Cure can't handle," she said. Problem was that she had left her Cure materia at home. So she was going to have a very painful walk back.

Tseng shook his head as he took another look at her leg.

"I don't think just using Cure is going to help you. It looks like the bullet is still in there. It needs to be taken out first." Great, she didn't have enough money to go to a doctor. She was screwed.

"I have someone who can help me. I'll be fine."

"Oh really?" Nia looked at Red whose eyebrow was raised at her. It looked like he knew something she didn't. Then he smirked.

"Then why don't you go ahead and try walking. If you can manage that, then we'll leave you alone. If you can't, then we are taking you to the Shinra infirmary and have our doctors fix your leg." Reno knew very well that someone in her state was in no condition to walk. But, if she was going to be stubborn about accepting help, then making her realize just how helpless she was now was the best way to make her go with them.

Nia, while frowning at Red, carefully started getting up while bracing one arm against the wall. However, when she tested her weight on her bad leg and attempted to walk, not only did she hiss in pain, but she also fell flat on her face.

She looked up only to see a knowing smirk on Red's face. She glared at him slightly.

"….Fine, you win." She hated admitting something like that.

Tseng signaled to Rude, who stepped forward and picked her up bridal style so that her leg wouldn't get jostled so much.

However, she felt the need to protest.

"Hey! I don't need to be carried! I can walk just fine…..somewhat."

Reno snickered.

"Oh yeah. We all saw that. Why don't you stop resisting already? We're trying to help you for helping us. We don't normally do stuff like this, so just shut up and accept it."

Nia stared at Red for a long moment as they left the warehouse. Any sentries that had been there must have run for it after figuring out that they were losing inside.

Cissnei had handed over the flash drive over to Tseng, who pocketed it.

Then, Cissnei decided to strike up a conversation.

"So Nia, you know how to use materia?"

….

After who knew how long after the whole fight at the warehouse, Nia was sitting on a bed in the infirmary at the Shinra headquarters. The bullet in her leg was removed and the wound had been healed by materia for the most part. However, she still had to have her leg wrapped up in bandages and the doctor had just finished lecturing her about how she had to lay off of it for a few days.

She wasn't really paying attention to him. She was just waiting for the all clear so that she could go home already.

After the doctor left, Tseng, as he had introduced himself, came back in and questioned her about the gang they had taken out. Basically, he was wondering if there was anyone who wasn't there who would cause this kind of trouble in the future.

She told him that there was no need to worry. The only guy who was able to pull everything together was dead now. Nobody else would be able to gather people together like he did.

"Can I go home yet?" She really wanted to get going.

Cissnei, who was in the infirmary upon request to make sure she was all right, just smiled at her.

"Don't worry. You won't have to stay here much longer."

Tseng nodded in agreement.

"I just have to do something first and then I'll escort you back down to the slums."

Nia shook her head.

"I don't need an escort. I can get home just fine."

Tseng shook his head.

"It's a sort of formality to escort guests off of Shinra property. I don't have to take you all the way home, but I do have to take you as far as under the plate."

Nia huffed in annoyance. She did not need a babysitter. She was capable of getting home on her own.

"Fine," she knew that she was going to lose this fight, "but don't expect me to do you guys anymore favors. I already did more than what is normal for me for other people."

"Then why did you help us at all?" Tseng questioned. Nia looked towards Cissnei and then looked back at Tseng.

"Because I would have felt like shit otherwise. I like to think of myself as someone who's not _completely_ ungrateful."

So, she helped them out of gratitude towards Cissnei. He honestly wasn't expecting something like that from someone from the slums, but he supposed that this wasn't impossible either.

"Well, I have to go do something real quick. Stay here and stay out of trouble. You can go home once I get back."

Nia nodded. She didn't even know her way around the building anyway. It was too damn big.

After Tseng left, Cissnei got up from her seat.

"I better get going too. I have to get back to work."

"After being a hostage? I say that warrants a day off."

Cissnei laughed.

"Maybe to other people, but not to Turks. See ya." With that, she left, leaving Nia alone in the infirmary. Well, not exactly alone because there was a nurse there to watch her (apparently guests weren't allowed to be alone) but still.

At least she would get home soon. She had been gone long enough for today.

…..

In the Turks headquarters, Cissnei sat at her desk writing up her report. She could hear Reno over at Rude's office trying to get Rude to play a game of tabletop football. She rolled her eyes. Turk or not, it seemed there was nothing that could get Reno to take paperwork seriously.

Then, she heard someone enter the Turks' office space. She got up and peeked outside her open office door to see Tseng looking angry about something.

Hearing the commotion, Reno peeked out of Rude's office and saw an angry Tseng. Which meant that there was something wrong because Tseng rarely let his anger show.

"Yo Tseng! Did something happen?" Tseng looked up to see Cissnei and Reno peeking out of their offices to see what was going on. Tseng pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to regain his composure.

"Hey Tseng! Weren't you supposed to escort the kid back under the plate?" Reno asked. It was weird. He wasn't supposed to be back by now. It was much too early.

"Yes. But there's no point now."

Reno frowned and Cissnei looked confused. At this point, Reno walked out of Rude's office with Rude behind him.

"What do you mean?" This time, it was Cissnei who asked. Did something happen to Nia?

"The nurse who was there said that, a few minutes after you left, Cissnei, Hojo showed up. He took it upon himself to make the girl a research subject. She's now in the lab at his mercy."

**Dun, dun, duuuuuuun! Poor Nia. It looks like she doesn't get to go home now. Now that this chapter is finally out of the way, I should have no problem with advancing the story. I've had a lot of things plan after this point, so you may be expecting an update soon.**

**This might be a crap chapter, but I assure you, I have the rest of the story planned out nicely.**

**Well, time to go! Please leave a review! I need to know what you guys think of this story! **

**Later!**


	6. Chapter 5

**And I am back. I will also like to mention a one-shot that will be posted that will be about Reno and Rude. And no, it is NOT a yaoi. I don't write that stuff.**

**I hope you guys have been enjoying the story so far. Here's another chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII. I do own Nia.**

Chapter 5

Yes. That is right. I was the one who took the fall at the end of the day. None of us saw it coming. Nobody knew how Hojo heard that there was a non-employee in the infirmary. Nobody knows now. All the Turks know was that, by the time they had heard of this and tried to get me out, it was too late. That bastard sure didn't waste his time in starting what I would know as pure torture.

If you had asked me then, I wouldn't have been able to tell you just how long I was in there or even what they were doing to me. To be frank, there isn't much I can remember about the time I had spent as a research specimen. All I remember was that there was so much pain. I wanted it to stop. I was living in hell as far as I knew. And I didn't even know what I did to deserve such torture.

Yeah, I was a thief then (and still kinda am now), but the stuff I did as a thief I was sure didn't warrant such pain.

The moment Hojo stepped into the infirmary and drugged me so that I couldn't run away, my nightmare and hell began.

I wanted out. It felt like I was there forever. As stubborn as I am, I almost gave up hope on getting out and was going to see if I would be allowed to just starve to death. I just couldn't take being in that lab anymore.

…

It was the day after AVALANCHE had broken into Shinra and attempted to kidnap Hojo. Shotgun came out of her room at the Turks headquarters that morning to see that she had a mission. All of the Turks had small rooms at HQ that they could stay in. It was in case there was an emergency at Shinra that called for their expertise late at night or early in the morning. Staying in the rooms wasn't mandatory. They could all have apartments, but Shinra wanted at least two or three Turks at HQ at all times, just in case.

The notice she found on her door said that she was to report to the surveillance room to be briefed on the mission.

She was still tired from the late mission last night. Especially with that dragon that came out of nowhere when she was chasing down the helicopter. Luckily for her, Sephiroth arrived in time to defeat it and to take down the helicopter that was taking Hojo away.

Shotgun arrived at the surveillance room to find Reno, Rude, and Veld there as well.

Veld turned around to face her when he heard the door open.

"Shotgun, you're right on time." Then he addressed all three of his subordinates that were assembled.

"You are all here because the monsters weren't the only ones that escaped from Hojo's lab last night."

Reno and Rude exchanged looks. What else was Hojo keeping in there that Shinra didn't want the world to know about?

"However, he has specified that he wants this specimen back alive and in one piece, which is why I have summoned the three of you. Catching something alive, as you all should know, is considerably more difficult than just killing it. However, he doesn't know where this specimen went, so we're here to track its movements from what the security cameras had picked up last night when it escaped."

"Um, sir, just what is this specimen?" Shotgun asked. If it wasn't one of the monsters that she had to kill last night, then what was it?

"I will point out the specimen to you when it shows up on the screen."

All four Turks looked towards the exit to see Hojo entering.

"Prof. Hojo. Glad you could make it."

"Well, as I said before Veld, I want this specimen back as soon as possible, so I want to make sure there is no mistaking the identity of it."

Veld only nodded.

"In that case, let's start already."

Veld turned around to face the console in front of the several flat screens that covered the back wall of the room. He pressed a button and a video from the lab last night was brought up.

On the screen were the two AVALANCHE soldiers that were releasing the monsters that had caused the diversion last night. However, one of them stopped in front of a cylindrical glass cage. The inhabitant of the cage was out of sight.

The soldier's partner ran up to him.

"Hey! We don't have time dawdle. We need to move!"

"But, there's a kid in there!"

"What?"

When the second guy took a look in the cage, he jumped back.

"You're right! What the hell does that guy think he's doing? Experimenting on the poor girl like that."

Reno frowned. Why did this sound familiar?

The first soldier went up to the console that stood in front of the cage.

"Hey, what are you doing?" asked his partner.

"Letting her out. We're already letting the monsters out, so why deny her the same freedom. Maybe she'll even join us. She has to hate Shinra if they had allowed her to be a lab rat."

With the push of a button, the glass door slid open. The "kid" that was supposed to be inside didn't make any movement visible to the camera. Apparently, she didn't move to leave at all because the soldier had to coax her out.

"Hey, we're not here to hurt you. We're gonna let you out of here. Surely you don't want to stay in here?"

It took a moment, but eventually, the specimen walked out of the cage.

Reno and Rude tensed a bit, but it went unnoticed by everyone else. The girl who was in the cage was the same one who had helped them out a while back. The same one who was in the lab because of them.

However, it had eased what was left of their consciences to see that she still looked human. Her hair was the same color and styled the same. Actually, she looked pretty much the same from the last time they met, except for the fact that she was missing her jacket. Without the jacket, she was wearing a plain white t-shirt.

She turned to stare at the two. The second soldier walked up to her.

"We're from AVALANCHE. If you want out of here, you have to come with us now. There isn't enough time to just stand around here."

The girl just gave them a blank stare and said nothing. The first soldier then tugged on her arm.

"Well, come on now! Before the Turks come!"

She still didn't say anything, but followed them out of the lab. Veld brought up several different videos on different screens to reveal the girl still following the intruders. She followed them down hallways and around corners. It appeared that she was going to follow them all the way to the stairs and to the roof where they had a helicopter waiting, except for the fact that she was starting to lag behind them. And then…

She vanished. Reno blinked.

"Is that right? Or is there a glitch in the video?"

"Hmph, ignorant fool. That is no glitch. It is the product of my ingenious work."

"Huh?" Reno frowned at Hojo.

"She's right there." Rude pointed at a screen on the left. As it turned out, she was at the far end of an adjoining hallway that the AVALANCHE soldiers were passing.

Veld turned around to face Hojo while the other Turks watched the screens as the target located the stairs and took them down to the next floor.

"Hojo, would you mind explaining to us how she got from one end of the hall to the other that fast? That shouldn't be humanly possible."

Hojo never took his eyes off the screen. He wanted to see the results of his latest experiment.

"This specimen has been testing another new drug that I've developed. It still has a bug that I've yet to work out, but it works for the most part. It is meant for speed enhancement for SOLDIER. While Sephiroth won't need something like this, this drug is meant to improve the other SOLDIERs that get recruited. That way, there wouldn't have to be a decision between speed and brute strength."

Veld went back to the face the screens. The girl had managed to go down three floors before she stopped and ran around the corner out of the room with the stairs and vanished again, only to reappear at the end of the hallway.

"As of now, the subject has only been able to utilize this speed in a straight line. She can't take any turns or such while going that fast, so for a moment, she has to stop and realign herself with the direction she wants to go," Hojo continued.

At that moment, it became clear why the girl stopped using the stairs. Shotgun had climbed up the stairs to deal with the monsters on that floor.

Shotgun blinked.

"She was there at the same time I was? I never saw her…."

Just as the girl was making a roundabout back to the stairs, she ran into an AVALANCHE soldier who was lurking around on that floor for some reason. The soldier spotted her and shouted out, "Death to the Shinra!"

The soldier pulled out his gun and pointed it at the girl who was running right at him.

However, right when he fired his gun, the girl appeared right behind him. Before he could take in the situation, the girl gave him a roundhouse kick that smacked him into the wall. The attack resulted in cracks and a small indentation in the wall.

Veld turned to face Hojo again.

"And that?"

"Well, Mako injections were needed if I was to see if the drug would be compatible with a typical SOLDIER."

Rude had noticed that the girl looked a bit shocked at the damaged she had done, but she turned and ran off, heading back to the stairs, probably to see if they were clear yet.

"I remember that. I was wondering what caused that kind of damage." And, as Shotgun had said, the video showed her coming across the scene a few minutes later.

As the girl was going down another few flights of stairs, Veld asked Hojo another question.

"You had mentioned a bug in the drug. What is it?"

Hojo, again not taking his eyes off the screen as the girl vanished from the stairs and reappeared again in a hallway three floors down when she heard Tseng coming up the stairs.

"At the rate the specimen is going, you'll see in a moment."

Reno frowned at the scientist. But his attention soon returned to the screen as the girl encountered another AVALANCHE member. She stood there, contemplating, as one of the monsters that were loose came up behind her. She turned around in time to see it attack and, in a flash, came at the monster from behind with a kick that sent it flying into the AVALANCHE member, who was pushed back a couple of feet by the sudden attack. Then, as the monster turned its attention to its new victim, the girl took off again with the help of the drug.

Just as she rounded the corner, two more AVALANCHE members spotted her and ran towards her. The girl vanished again, but this time she reappeared a few feet in front of the intruders, tumbling lifelessly on the ground.

When she came to rest, one of the intruders carefully walked up to her. He bent down, turned her over on her back, and checked a spot on her throat.

"…No pulse."

The other one was perplexed.

"Wait, she just dropped dead? How is that possible?"

The first guy got up and shrugged.

"I don't know, but it's one less person we have to worry about. Come on! There's a Turk on this floor we need to take care of."

"Right…" With that, they took off, leaving behind the corpse.

"The bug is that, while the subject is able to move at incredible speed, the heart rate also speeds up to where it is fatal. I have yet to figure out how to counteract it without the subject losing its speed."

Shotgun was the only Turk to let surprise show on her face. The others were too used to Hojo's experiments to be surprised by this. However, Reno still felt a slight twinge of guilt. The reason she was like that was because they had dragged her back to the infirmary. But, guilt would only slow him down.

"So wait, what happened to the body?" Veld was confused. If the missing specimen was dead, why wasn't the body found last night?

Hojo finally took his eyes off the screen for a second to look at Veld.

"You're under the assumption that this is the first time this has happened to the specimen, or that my experiments allow her to stay dead."

All four Turks looked at Hojo in confusion. What was he talking about? But then, a gasping sound interrupted their thoughts.

The Turks looked up to see the girl curling herself up in the fetal position, taking desperate gasps of air as she shook.

"As you can see, the process is actually a bit painful and leaves the specimen weakened from a while. So, this is actually the ideal time to catch it."

She laid there for a few minutes before trying to get up on unsteady feet. She fell forward on the first attempt, but managed to get herself leaning heavily against the wall on her second try. She stayed like that for a few minutes until she looked over her shoulder. A different screen revealed Tseng heading her way. She probably heard him coming because she started running off. She tripped at first, but as soon as she got back on her feet, she was gone.

She continued running until she found the elevator. At that point, she was panting. Then she slammed her fist against the down button while keeping a hand to her chest. She leaned against the wall until the elevator doors opened and walked in.

The elevator took her all the way down to the 59th floor, which was the only floor she could go to without a keycard. As soon as the elevator doors opened, she ran out and got spotted by the two security guards who stood by the doors.

"Hey! Who are you?"

"Shit!" Apparently, the girl wasn't expecting to run into security. Within the next few seconds, the guards were down before they could report her.

Then, she looked between the other set of elevators and the stairwell. After a moment, she ran through the door to the stairwell, where there were no security cameras.

"Hey, whose bright idea was it to not install cameras in the stairwell from the 59th floor down?" Reno asked. Veld shrugged.

"I don't know. But I think it's safe to say we know where she'll be coming out."

Veld then focused on the security camera that was trained on the stairwell's exit outside of the building.

As he predicted, about seven minutes later, the girl came out puffing and wheezing. Reno saw the look on her face and knew that she was pretty much thinking "oh why the hell did I choose the stairs?"

She stood outside for a few minutes, doubled over and trying to get oxygen in her lungs. Then she straightened herself up and took off running towards Sector 8 and out of sight of the security cameras.

"Well, now we see where she went. But I doubt that she would have stayed in Sector 8 for long."

"I have been told that this specimen was originally from the slums. There may be a chance that it went home."

Veld nodded and turned to his subordinates.

"Okay, you have your orders. Search the slums and catch this person alive. We can't let word out of any of Hojo's experiments."

Reno, Rude, and Shotgun all nodded.

"Sir!" With that, they left.

…

The Turks entered the Sector 8 slums to begin their search, since the girl was last spotted in Sector 8 above the plate.

"So, do you guys know where she used to live?" Shotgun asked. She knew nothing about this person, but maybe her superiors knew.

Reno shook his head.

"Nope. There was a rumor about her living in a warehouse in Sector 4, but that was a lie. Hey Rude, how do you think she'll react to seeing us this time?"

Before Rude could answer, Shotgun piped up.

"This time? You guys met her before?"

Reno nodded.

"Yep. It was actually during a mission that our target nearly botched for us."

As they searched the sector, Reno went on to explain to Shotgun about the mission and how the girl stole Shinra property without even knowing it. He then explained about how she helped them infiltrate a gang hideout because one of them helped her and everything that happened from there.

"Wait, how did she end up in the lab then?"

Reno and Rude were silent for a moment. Finally, Rude spoke up to shed some light on the situation.

"We took her to the infirmary since she was shot in the leg during the mission. Hojo somehow got word that there was a civilian in the infirmary and 'volunteered' her as a research subject."

"Well, wasn't there anything that could have been done to stop him?" She had heard the rumors about Hojo's experiments. Who could let someone go through that?

"It was too late. Hojo didn't waste any time in starting his experiment. By the time we got word of it, she was already in the lab. And the company has a habit of spoiling the scientist. So, they overlooked it, under the pretenses that she was nothing more than another slum rat that nobody will miss." Shotgun looked from Rude to Reno, wanting one of them to say that they were just kidding.

But, neither of them did. And now, they were looking for the same girl to put her back in the lab that she managed to escape. This didn't settle well with Shotgun, but she had her orders.

Suddenly, Reno's PHS rang. He picked up after briefly glancing at the caller ID.

"Hey Tseng. What're you calling for?"

"_I've heard about your orders and I'm calling to let you know that I know where you can find the target."_

Reno frowned. How would Tseng know something like that?

"Well shoot. Where can we find her?"

Rude and Shotgun waited patiently as Reno got the target's location from Tseng. However, what neither expected was for Reno to suddenly swear.

"You have got to be shitting me. Don't tell me that she's…."

Rude frowned while Shotgun let her confusion show on her face.

Reno then snapped the phone shut and looked at his fellow Turks.

"Come on. I know where we can find her." He then walked off towards Sector 7 with his partners following behind him and trying to make sense of what just happened.

**Extra long chapter for those that have alerted this story so far. I'm not sure how well this chapter turned out. But I have plans for better chapters in the future, so hopefully that will counteract the early bad chapters.**

**Don't forget to keep an eye out for the one shot and please review. Reviews help with motivation.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Holy crap! It's been months since I last updated this story! I'm so sorry about that! It seems that whenever I think that there'll be time to do something later, that later turns into a hell of a lot longer than I had originally intended.**

**Luckily, I still have the plot for this story going strong in my mind, so it's not dead!**

**Anyway, I've kept you guys waiting long enough. Here it is.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own FF7. I do own Nia.**

Chapter 6

". . . You have got to be kidding me," said Rude.

"That's what I said when Tseng told me," said Reno.

The three Turks were now standing outside a large, and very familiar, building in the Sector 5 slums.

"What? Is there something special about this church?" asked Shotgun, who was the only person in their group to have not been there before.

"You could say that," Reno said without elaborating further that this was a known spot that the Ancient frequented.

"According to Tseng, this girl is actually a known friend of another target. The fact that she really lives here sorta proves it," said Reno.

Tseng had told Reno and Rude a bit about what he found out about the Ancient while tailing her. One of those things was that, a few years back, the Ancient had acquired a friend, who started living in the church. This friend would accompany her on several occasions whenever they were just wandering around the slums. However, what Tseng _didn't_ mention was what the friend looked like or that the person they brought in for medical help _was_ her. Now they had to go and drag her back to Shinra to go through who knew what Hojo was planning for her.

If Tseng was hoping for the Ancient's cooperation, they sure as hell weren't going to get it if she found out that her friend was now a human lab rat.

"Think she's in?" Reno asked Rude.

"…" Reno sighed.

"Let's just get this over with. Shotgun, you come in with me."

"What about Rude?" she asked.

"He's going to stand outside in case she slips past us. Right, buddy?"

Rude nodded. So, with an understanding of what they were doing and what the girl was capable of, Reno and Shotgun walked up the steps of the church.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nia was sitting next to the bed of flowers that grew in the middle of the floor with her eyes closed and breathing in the flowers' scent. She was finally able to relax. This was her only sanctuary. Nobody knew that she lived here or even came here in the first place. Well, one person knew she lived here.

Nia opened her eyes. How long had she been gone from here? Was Aerith worried about her? Was she still hoping that she would come back? Nia had no way of knowing right now just how long she had been in that hell. She had gone through too much pain to keep track. All she knew was that she was now out and back home.

Home. That was what she called this church. It was the only home she had where she knew that there was someone waiting for her. She would like to think that Aerith also relied on her to come to watch her back. After all, Nia had given up on relying on others, so why not be a person that someone else could rely on? However, she hadn't done a good job at that recently. She had let herself get caught and Aerith had no way of knowing what caused her to disappear for however long she was gone.

But, it wasn't like she was going to tell Aerith what happened to her anyway. She would prefer if only one of them had nightmares about it. Besides, Aerith had nothing to do with Shinra, so why worry her about some company who employed a psychotic scientist?

Nia wondered what time it was. It had to be morning by now, but with the damn plate over her head, she could never be entirely sure sometimes. Aerith typically stopped by the church in the afternoon. She hoped that Aerith would come back soon. She had to let her know that she was okay. Aerith was always worried about her, especially since she would get into fights sometimes.

Nia smirked. She wondered what Aerith's reaction would be. Aerith seemed to have a knack of knowing things. Would she know that she was back and therefore not be surprised at all? It wouldn't surprise Nia. In fact, to avoid having to relive what she went through in that lab, she was just going to greet her the same way she always did and ask her what she wanted to do. The only difference would be that she wouldn't be practicing her guitar like she normally did.

Nia snapped her head up when she heard the doors open. It couldn't be the afternoon already, could it? Maybe she changed the times she came to the church. Or maybe she came by earlier and more frequently hoping that she came back.

Whatever the reason, Nia was glad that she wouldn't have to keep waiting. She stood up to get a better look at the entrance. For what felt like the first time in a long time, she smiled. However, that smile was short-lived when she saw the two – not one, but two – people that came instead of the person she was expecting. What stood out to her most was the redhead that she had seen before…..

Reno looked up to see the target staring at them with wide eyes and a shocked look on her face. She was definitely not expecting them to find her here. Apparently, she thought that she was now safe.

None of that concerned him, though. His Turk switch was "on", which meant that he was going to complete this mission as efficiently as possible, regardless of what the person standing before them did for them. After all, that was what Turks did.

Nia couldn't believe it. The Turks found her. But, almost no one knew that she lived here! She made sure of that herself when she used to pick fights with gang members (and not just the last group that gave her problems). How did they find her?

She had no time to ponder that as Red stepped forward with a smirk on his face.

"Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe you were ever cleared to leave the building."

What? Were they seriously here to send her back to that hell? After the help she gave them? Some of those rumors about the Turks were starting to sound like the truth now. Didn't they know what went on in that lab? Maybe they did know and just didn't care. She didn't know. What she did know was that she wasn't going to go back that easily after finally managing to get out.

Reno walked forward carefully, watching her closely to see if her next move would be obvious. She had tensed, which indicated that she wasn't willing to just go with them that easily. He couldn't really blame her. What kind of person would go to Hojo's lab willingly?

He could hear Shotgun following behind him to help him catch the girl. However, the moment she strayed far enough from the front doors, the girl suddenly vanished. They caught flickers of her jumping over the pews around them, and then she bolted out the door.

"How do they expect us to catch someone like that?" Shotgun asked after the shock of actually seeing the speed in person wore off.

Reno said nothing. He only took off for the front doors where Rude should have been to catch her should this have happened.

However, the sight that greeted them wasn't what they wanted to see. Rude was getting up off the ground and the girl was not there with him. Rude pointed over to the right.

"She's over there." Nevertheless, when the other two Turks looked over, they saw the target vanish once again behind a pile of junk.

"It seems the farthest she can go is about 30 feet at a time. But hard to hold onto with the Mako enhancements making her able to knock over the person trying to catch her."

Reno then understood why Rude was on the ground. The speed and Mako combined gave her enough force to knock Rude off his feet when he wasn't expecting it.

Suddenly, they heard a woman scream.

"Sounds like our target is drawing attention to herself," said Reno. Something that the Turks didn't want. They ran in the direction of the scream.

The sight that greeted them was a woman standing over the collapsed body of the girl. The woman was in hysterics. When she saw the Turks, she waved her arms frantically at them.

"I-I don't know wha-what happened. She just came out of nowhere and collapse! I d-don't think she's breathing!" Reno frowned and walked up to the girl. Then he knelt down and checked her pulse.

No pulse.

He looked over his shoulder at Rude and Shotgun, and they understood immediately what happened. Hojo's drug.

Shotgun turned to the woman as Rude picked up the girl.

"Don't worry ma'am. We're going to get her some help." The woman had calmed down somewhat, but was still freaking out a bit.

"O-Okay." With that, the Turks left with their mission objective. They had managed to get as far as Sector 6 when she came back to life, gasping painfully for air.

Rude stopped and placed her on the ground as she curled up into a ball, trying to breathe.

Nia was in so much pain. It felt as if her chest was on fire. Every breath was a chore. With so much pain being caused by whatever that damned scientist gave her, she would think that it would have killed her.

Finally, after what seemed like a long time, she was able to breathe more comfortably and was aware of the fact that she was lying on the ground on her side. She uncurled herself, thinking that she managed to get away from the Turks, when she felt a sharp pain at the back of her head.

And then her whole world became dark once more.

Reno and Rude stood over her slumped body. Now that they didn't have to worry about her struggling with them for a while, Rude picked her back up and slung her over his shoulder. With a nod, the other two Turks took the lead in going back to Shinra.

They were almost to Sector 8, where they were planning on going back up on the plate, when a little blur ran at them.

"What do you think you're doing?" The blur turned out to be a boy, who looked very angry. He ran at Rude, but Reno stepped in and put a hand on the boy's head, stopping him in place as he flailed his arms at the Turk.

"I don't know what you're talking about, kid, but this is none of your business."

The kid looked up at him angrily.

"What did you do to Nia? Where are you taking her?" Reno raised an eyebrow. The kid knew the girl. This wasn't good. They couldn't afford to let word get to Aerith.

"We didn't do anything to her. We just need her to come with us, so scram kid." Reno waved at the kid dismissively.

The boy shook his head.

"No! She's been missing for a long time now and she finally came back like she said she would! Now you're taking her away again! Aerith's been worried about her! She has to go back home!"

Reno was starting to get annoyed. He didn't want to kill the kid, but how were they supposed to make him go away without telling anyone anything about the girl?

"Hey! We're actually trying to help her." Reno, Rude, and the kid looked at Shotgun in confusion. How was taking someone back into Hojo's lab helping them? He really had to hear this.

Shotgun knelt down so that she was at the boy's level.

"She's actually very sick. We found her collapsed because of this illness she has." The boy looked at Nia, who was still slung over Rude's shoulder, in alarm.

"We have someone who knows how to make her better, so we need her to come with us so that she could get help. We don't know how long it'll take to make her better, but she should eventually be able to come back when she's not so sick."

The boy was starting to lose his conviction on making them put her down so that she could go home.

"But . . . Aerith . . ."

"It would probably be best if you didn't say anything about this to Aerith or anyone else," said Shotgun. The boy looked up at her in confusion.

"You said that she was worried, right? Wouldn't telling her that she was sick make her even more worried about her? It would be best if you keep this to yourself. Once she comes back, Aerith can stop worrying about her then. Does that sound okay?"

After about a moment of contemplation, the boy finally nodded. Reno relaxed a bit about the situation. Clearly, Shotgun could handle kids better than he could.

"Okay, I'll keep quiet. But she better be able to come home!" he said as he ran off. As much as he wanted his friend back, he was also too scared of the Turks to try to do anything more than that. It took all of his courage just to run to them in the first place.

"You do know that she won't be able to come back here, right?" Reno asked Shotgun.

Shotgun nodded.

"I know. But I couldn't tell the kid that," she said.

Without needing to say anything more, the three Turks made their way back to HQ.

**Yeah, Nia has no luck, despite her efforts. Will any of that change? You will find out at a later date.**

**Again, sorry for the reeeeaaaaallllly long wait for this update. I can't make any guarantees as to when the next update will be between my other stories and real life, but I'm hoping not to make the wait as long.**

**Anyway, please leave a review and tell me what you think, as reviews will help point out where this story needs to be improved and whether or not you like the chapter in the first place.**

**Later!**


	8. Chapter 7

**Again, long wait, but at least it wasn't nearly a year this time. I'm trying to regain my muse for this story, and slowly but surely, it's working. Anyway, time for the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own FF7. Nia is my OC.**

Chapter 7

My escape attempt was short-lived. I also found it unsettlingly how easily the Turks found me at that church. No one was supposed to know that I lived there. Now that they did, and Shinra wasn't keen on letting me leave the lab, I could never go back. Not only because they would just come for me again, but because I would be placing Aerith in danger. Back then, I thought that Shinra wasn't aware of her, and that she had nothing to do with the company. I wasn't willing to put her in the line of fire.

But, I couldn't stand that lab anymore. Yeah, just the other day, I was going to try to die off in that cage of mine. That changed after those guys helped me out. Don't get me wrong. I wasn't going to go with them under any circumstances. After being thrown into a lab after believing someone that I could go home, I wasn't keen on trusting other people's words. However, I saw that it was possible to get out. It was a very small spark of hope, but it was enough for me to try again. I couldn't go back home, but I had other plans that I was willing to push forward. Too bad I didn't see what was going to happen after my next attempt . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It was a few days after her last escape attempt that Hojo approached her glass cage. He wasn't alone, either. With him was a heavyset man with blonde hair and a beard. He wore a purple suit and his presence was saturated in arrogance. Standing next to him was a boy who didn't look much older than her. She could see the family resemblance between him and the blonde man. It made her think that he was his son. There were three other people in the group, but the only other one she took note of was the one Turk in the group.

It was the woman with the shotgun. The one who helped drag her back into this hell. Nia caught the woman's eyes.

Shotgun stared at the girl she had helped apprehend a few days ago. Nia, as she learned was her name from Cissnei, sat in a cylindrical glass prison towards one side of the lab. She was still wearing the same clothes, and her brown eyes had an unnatural glow to them, a sign that she had been injected with Mako. Her gaze became wary when she spotted the Turk. Was it Shotgun's imagination, or was there also anger reflected in her eyes? If there was, it was barely there, but it was justified. Who wouldn't be mad at the people who turned around on them and sent them to their prison like that? She wished that the President hadn't asked for a Turk to overlook today's demonstration with him.

"This is the specimen who has been testing the latest speed enhancement drug," announced Hojo, indicating to Nia. At the sound of his voice, Nia's gaze was redirected towards him. Her look changed from wary to hatred.

"Well, let's see the results already. I have a busy schedule today," said the President. Hojo nodded.

"Of course. I'll just need to put it to sleep so that we can move it to the training room," he said. With the press of a button on the console outside of the cage, gas started to pour into the cage. Nia, knowing that this was coming, held her breath.

Shotgun watched as three minutes passed and Nia still remained conscious.

"Well, what's taking so long?" asked the President impatiently. Hojo smirked.

"It's just being a little stubborn. It does this all the time whenever I fill the room with gas. So far, its record has been 4 minutes and 38 seconds. Just wait about another minute," he said. Shotgun watched as Nia continued to hold her breath, giving Hojo a look of defiance. Even in a hopeless situation like this, Nia refused to just give in.

However, she started to feel light headed at the 4 minute and 15 second mark. Her red face turned blue at 4 minutes and 33 seconds. Finally, she couldn't hold it in anymore. At 4 minutes and 41 seconds, she released her breath and her lungs tried to take in much needed oxygen, only to get the sleep gas. Nia coughed as she lost consciousness. The last thing she saw was the blurred image of the Turk's face. Nia didn't know why she looked towards her. She wasn't expecting any help from them now. Or ever, for that matter.

When Nia came to again, she was in what she recognized as Sector 8, if only because she had passed through the area escaping Shinra last time. She knew right off the bat that she was in a training room. She had been in here before, and was sorely let down the first time she thought that she was outside of this place.

Meanwhile, in an observation room, Hojo and the same group of people watched as Nia came to and surveyed her surroundings.

"There is still a problem with the drug, but once that has been sorted out, SOLDIERs can easily accomplish tasks in which speed is required. It also lasts for months at a time, so there shouldn't be a need for a large supply on long missions," explained Hojo.

"What exactly is the problem?" asked Rufus, the Vice-President.

"The subject's heart rate has a tendency to speed up as well. When the speed enhancement is used frequently enough over a certain span of time, the heart rate reaches a fatal level and stops the specimen in its tracks," said Hojo.

"And how many specimens have you killed off developing this drug?" asked Rufus. Shotgun's eyes flicked away from Nia and to the scientist. It was a question that caught her attention and she wanted it answered.

"None. This specimen has yet to be so easily killed off. I've been able to perform a series of experiments on it because of that," said Hojo, waving the matter off.

"Really? Now that's useful," said the President. Hojo scoffed.

"It's the only useful thing about this specimen. It's worthless in every other aspect," said Hojo, returning his attention to said specimen. Shotgun tensed slightly. Worthless? What did he mean by that?

"Now, let's begin the demonstration," said Hojo.

Back in the training room, Nia was wandering aimlessly through Sector 8. With none of this being real, she had nowhere to go. No people to see. She just wanted the session to be over with so that she could go back to planning her escape. Suddenly, six Shinra troopers ran in from the other end of the street.

"Catch her!" one of them shouted. She watched as they aimed their guns at her. She sighed. If she defeated them all, would they end this? Only one way to find out.

Nia aligned herself with her target. Then, as she remembered doing before, she surged forward. It felt like she was sprinting only one or two steps before she found herself flanking one of her enemies. Taking them by surprise, she threw some punches and he was down on the ground. She wished that she had her knives, but she knew that she wasn't going to be getting them back anytime soon. So punching had to do for now.

After dealing with the other five in the same fashion, an overwhelming amount of troopers poured into the streets. They were all pointing their guns at her. There was no way she could fight them all off, so she did what she wanted to do ever since she was brought in so long ago. She ran away.

Back in the observation room . . .

"I see how that drug is useful, but why is she using it to run away now instead of fighting off the troopers?" asked President Shinra. Hojo shrugged.

"While we know that the typical SOLDIER will fight, this specimen is just a rat from the streets. We can't expect it to behave as a SOLDIER would," said Hojo. Shotgun watched as Nia pushed on through, using alleyways and fire escapes to get away from the troopers with the help of the drug. However, Nia started to look pale after a while, and she started to rub her chest. Right where her heart was. She didn't have much longer.

It was when Nia was leaning against a building and doing such that a new look formed on her face. A look that said that she had just realized something. Shotgun didn't have much time to think about it when Nia disappeared again. The replica of the sector disappeared and that was when a blinking red light and a siren sounded in the room.

"What's going on?" asked President Shinra. Hojo gave the scene a contemplative look.

"It seems that there was a weak point in the hologram. The specimen must have seen it and used it to bust out of the training room," he said.

"Are you telling me that thing is loose in the building?" asked an enraged President.

"It would appear so," said Hojo, nodding. Rufus smirked at the look on his father's face. The President then pointed at Shotgun.

"You! I don't care what you Turks do, just make sure you catch that thing and put it back in its cage! We can't afford a research subject to get out onto the streets," he ordered. Shotgun nodded.

"Sir!" She ran out into the hallway. After being out of sight of everyone else, she pulled out her PHS. She was going to need backup for this job.

"_Shotgun? What happened?"_ asked Tseng after picking up on the second ring.

"Nia escaped again." She briefly explained what had happened while overlooking the experiment.

"_I see. In that case, continue your pursuit. I'll inform the others and send them to help you."_

"Yes, sir!" After hanging up, Shotgun went to where the door to the training room was. It was busted down, and a few troopers who were in the area had been beaten up. There was no sign of the girl. And she had no idea as to where Nia could have gone. Shotgun picked up her PHS when it rang again.

"_Surveillance footage shows her on the 40__th__ floor. She was in the stairwell when security forced her into hiding somewhere there,"_ said Tseng, _"Reno, Rude, and Cissnei are on their way to help."_

"Thanks, sir!" She hung up. Nia sure covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. Shotgun ran for the stairwell. Secretly, she was hoping that Nia would escape and get beyond their grasp. No one deserved to be a test subject and suffer heart attack after heart attack for the rest of their lives. However, to let her escape would reflect badly on the Turks. There was no way to win in this situation.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nia was currently hiding out on the 40th floor. She was resting in the enclosed space, wanting to catch her breath. She wanted to make a break for the exit, but her throbbing chest had made it difficult to breathe and run. So hiding became the immediate goal. Now that she was hidden, she could plan her escape a bit more.

The troopers were easy enough to handle on her own until her heart became a problem. However, the Turks were bound to be on her tail, starting with the woman with the shotgun. There were security cameras everywhere. The elevator would only serve as a trap. Maybe she could use her current hiding spot as a means of escape, although she didn't know if . . .

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of groaning metal. Her eyes narrowed. Someone please tell her that wasn't what she thought it was.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Reno and Rude had been searching the floor for a while now, but the girl had basically disappeared.

"Well, where do you think she went?" Reno asked Rude. Rude shrugged. Reno huffed.

"That's not good. It's not like she's going to fall from the sky!" Just as Reno said this, the ceiling above them groaned. They looked up to see cracks form in the ceiling. Before they could give it much thought, the ceiling collapsed. They ducked away and shielded their eyes from the dust. When it cleared, they saw Nia getting up, coughing and dusting herself off. The two Turks exchanged a look.

". . . Didn't think that would literally happen," said Reno.

"I know," said Rude. At the sound of their voices, Nia turned around, getting into a defensive stance and eyeing them warily.

"You know that you're not supposed to be crawling through the vents, right?" asked Reno, "That's how ceilings get busted."

"Hey, don't be mad at me. Be mad at the contractor who gave the ok to have such a weak ceiling over your heads," she retorted. Reno smirked, but then replaced that with a look of indifference.

"Look, we all know how this is going to end . . ." he started.

"We won't know unless I try otherwise," she said. Without giving them time to react, she turned around and reached the end of the hallway in a flash. Of course, her chest protested this action. Nia went back to running regularly away from the Turks. She hadn't gotten enough rest to use the speed boost anymore.

"Hold it!" She had to give Red credit. He was fast. Probably faster than her in her current condition. He was close behind her now. Her chest throbbed painfully. As if she needed that reminder. She needed to lose him without the drug's help.

Nia turned the corner, hoping to find something that would help her. What happened instead was that she ran into a person. The collision made her fall onto her backside. When she looked up, she saw the last person she expected to see.

Cat-like green eyes stared down at her. Nia could only stare up in shock at those eyes. She had never seen him before, but she remembered how people in the slums described him. His long silver hair was her tip-off that she was possibly seeing who she thought this was.

Standing before her was the famous 1st Class SOLDIER, Sephiroth.

**With Sephiroth on the scene, escape now seems impossible. What will happen to Nia now? Will she ever escape the lab for good? Will she ever be on good terms with the Turks? Watch out for more updates to get these answers and more!**

**In the meantime, please review and tell me what you think of the story so far. Reviews help me improve the story. I will try to get the next update out as soon as possible. Later!**


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